Branding remains one of the most fundamental and important aspects of marketing your goods and services. Equally as valuable, of course, is the actual product beneath the labeling that directly impacts the buyer. While good branding communicates to consumers the high levels of trust and quality they can expect from their purchase, it is ultimately the efficacy of the end-product itself which does the heavy lifting and entices customers to recognize the brand and buy more in the future—coming full circle.
Both product and brand are vital to customer satisfaction and sales, but sometimes companies are lacking one component of the equation. For instance: what if you already have a brand in place, but no product yet? What if you aren’t able to manufacture the product yourself? What if you don’t even know what makes a good product in the first place?
In the world of product manufacturing and marketing, the solution to this dilemma is often solved through white label and private label opportunities. Needless to say, the industry is flooded with misunderstanding surrounding these two terms, often confusing one for the other. Let’s analyze what makes white label specifically different than private label, and why your brand could benefit from a white label partnership.
What is Private Label?
Before we tackle the meaning of white label, let’s first clarify its alternative: private label.
In a private label scenario, a company already has a product in mind behind their brand, but lacks the manufacturing power to produce it in large quantities to be sold and distributed via other wholesalers or directly to the customer (such as through a company website). To that end, a private label is an excellent solution, wherein the company teams up with a third-party manufacturer or contractor to get the dirty work done under very precise specifications. The partner then produces the product exactly how the company wants it and places the company’s own branding on the package. The responsibility then falls on the company to decide how, where, and when to sell their products according to their industry experience and goals.
For example: let’s say you’ve just crafted the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a new, personal recipe. It’s so tasty that you decide to create a brand around it in order to sell huge amounts of your sandwiches to the public. But rather than spend all day painstakingly putting together sandwiches in the kitchen, you reach out to a famous sandwich factory for help. This factory produces all kinds of sandwiches, from hoagies to finger-sandwiches and everything in between. You give them your exact recipe, labels, and brand design, and instruct them to produce heaps of PB&J sandwiches according to your specifications. They follow your orders, and now with a pantry loaded with hundreds of thousands of sandwiches stuffed inside packages under your name, you can determine where to begin selling them for a profit.
The important factor of private label is customization—the ability to have a third-party create your product exactly how you’ve already envisioned it. As a result, private label partnerships tend to be more expensive than other options. That’s because the manufacturer is required to design new systems and processes specifically around the creation of your unique product, which takes more time, effort, and resources to do. The rest of the sales process—including marketing, distribution, and even e-commerce—rests entirely on your shoulders.
What is White Label?
White label shares many similarities with private label, but the differences are large enough to make it stand as a saving grace for companies of all sizes.
With white labels, the company already has their brand in place, but does not have their concrete product put together yet. They have ideas, goals, and labeling all set, but the actual ingredients, materials, or formulations have not been created. In this case, companies may reach out to a third-party manufacturer or contractor under a white label partnership. A white label partner is often a niche industry expert, and is allowed to “take the reins” of the entire production process. Possessing superior knowledge of your specific market, the partner uses one of their own quality designs to craft the product, which is labeled under your brand and manufactured in bulk. The rest of the sales process is then your responsibility once again.
Returning to our sandwich example, let’s assume you’ve created a brand to sell some killer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This time around, however, you don’t know how to go about making a sandwich people will find especially delicious—you don’t have a recipe on hand. Rather than utilizing a factory that produces every type of general sandwich on the market, you contact a world-renowned peanut butter and jelly factory who understands the PB&J industry like no other. The factory agrees to produce one of their own high-grade recipes of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in mass quantities before sending them to you under your own branding. You’re then free to sell the sandwiches as you please with your name on all the packaging.
White label services differ in that companies leave the production process—everything from the product’s design to its actual make-up—to the discretion of the expert manufacturer, who understands the industry and trends much better. This allows companies to back their brands with superb products that they did not have to worry about producing themselves.
CC Wellness Specializes in White Label for Health and Wellness
Whether you’re a new business just beginning to get your brand off the ground, or a successful company looking to launch your next big health-wellness product, CC Wellness offers all the tools you need to supply your label with unbeatable formulations. Under our Make WAVES service, we not only build your product with a serum specially designed by our industry veterans, but we also stick alongside you to ensure your product succeeds on the market. In addition to turnkey white label formulation, we provide top-tier Amazon brand management services led by our former Amazon employees who are responsible for brands tripling their market share within the first two months of onboarding. White label has never looked so good!
Have a brand you want to launch? Visit our Make WAVES page to learn more!
